The Ards
Peninsula

Original Official Site of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board

Grey Point, on the county Down coast

To burst upon the rollers of the open sea,
take the little road from Grey Abbey where terns swoop over Strangford's
quiet waters, and drive due east. In a few minutes it's barely three
miles to Ballywalter beach - you have crossed to another world.

The two roads that run the length of the Ards on its opposite shores
could hardly be more different. The sheltered road is the loughside one.

The breezy coast road from the resort town of Bangor runs south via
Donaghadee, passing close to the windmill at Ballycopeland, on to Portavogie
harbour where seals bob against the prawn boats as the catch is landed.
On it goes, past pretty Kearney village right to the end of the peninsula
where the ancient Irish marked their graves with a ring of standing stones
and built a fort into the wind on the hill at Tara.

Ballycopeland windmill

The reefs off this coast have claimed many ships in the past. Only Donaghadee
offered a safe refuge. In 1818 John Keats took the short crossing from
Portpatrick in Scotland, landing at Donaghadee, and walked to Belfast
and back. The Lakeland poet Wordsworth, and Franz Liszt (with a piano
in his baggage) ended their grand Irish tours here. At low tide the dulse
gatherers go down by the lighthouse to collect the edible seaweed growing
on the rocks.

The small rounded hills called 'drumlins' that cover north Down extend
into Strangford Lough. Dozens of drowned drumlins pop up here and there,
mostly near the shore. These islands give the lough the appearance of
a freshwater lake, at least at the sheltered northern end, about 18 miles
from the narrow entrance at Portaferry. Four hundred million tons of
water rush through the gap twice a day, and the Vikings named it 'violent
fjord' (Strangford) after the fierce currents in these tidal narrows.

The lough is a great
bird sanctuary and wildlife reserve. Thousands of Brent geese spend
the winter here and greylag and whitefronted geese
visit from the Downpatrick marshes. Oyster catchers, curlews and other
wading birds love the mudflats. A hundred different species of fish live
in the lough, and sea hares, sun stars and curled octopus sometimes appear
on the shore. With so much food readily available, it's not surprising
that buzzards, sparrowhawks and short-eared owls make occasional visits.
The lough's rich marine life is on display at the Portaferry aquarium.

Round the shores are many interesting and historic places. Take the
car ferry from Portaferry across to Castle Ward, built by the first Lord
Bangor in 1765. He favoured the classical style but Lady Bangor preferred
Strawberry Hill Gothic. As you will see, they both got their way. Another
great loughside demesne open to the public is Mount Stewart, the childhood
home of Lord Castlereagh, foreign secretary of England during the Napoleonic
wars. The estate has delightful gardens, and dodos and dinosaurs on the
terraces.

Strangford was a
desirable address many centuries before the Anglo-Irish built their
great houses. Of the four Cistercian monasteries in medieval
county Down, three were built round the lough - Inch Abbey, Grey Abbey
and Comber. The fourth was at Newry, the town that guarded the strategically
important Gap of the North.

Only Inch Abbey and Grey Abbey have substantial remains. Founded in
1193 by Affreca, wife of John de Courcy, Grey Abbey had a big stone fishery
and the monks built fish traps out of wattles.